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Age of Empires creator starts another studio, this time for mobile
Tony Goodman, creator of Age of Empires and founder of Ensemble Studios, has started a new studio focused on mobile and "other emerging platforms," named PeopleFun. We assume that's opposed to those other types of fun, "BearFun" and "HamburgerFun." Goodman previously founded Orcs Must Die and Hero Academy developer Robot Entertainment.PeopleFun is based in the Dallas area and includes the talents of Angelo Laudon, lead programmer on the Age of Empires engine, and John Boog-Scott, co-founder with Goodman of Ensemble Corporation and Studios. PeopleFun's first title is almost ready for beta and "is a departure from the games we made at Ensemble and Robot in terms of scope and genre," Goodman says.
Orcs Must Die 2 unlocks free co-op 'Classic mode' for owners of first game
We've known Robot Entertainment planned to offer goodies in Orcs Must Die 2 to those who purchased the original on Steam, and today the developer revealed specifics on those incentives. A special Classic mode will be available to those people, featuring ten levels from the original game available for single or co-op play in the sequel.Classic mode will be instantly unlocked in Orcs Must Die 2 for all owners of Orcs Must Die on Steam. The original games is available at a reduced price on Steam right now, though we'd be remiss if we didn't remind you of Orcs Must Die 2's July 30 launch date lurking around the corner.%Gallery-160315%
Hero Academy coming to Steam this August
I've had a great run here at Joystiq. It's been a wonderful six years but, this morning, Senior Reporter Ben Gilbert informed me that Hero Academy will soon be coming to Steam. It will feature a special Team Fortress 2 team of heroes, will be cross-platform compatible with the iOS version and all purchased teams will work across both versions.Hero Academy will come to Steam on August 9, which means I have about 40 days of productivity left. I can't promise I will write another word after that. Sorry.
Orcs Must Die! 2 starts stacking bodies on July 30
Robot Entertainment's semi-genocidal sequel, Orcs Must Die! 2, will launch on July 30, a blog post on Robot Entertainment's site reads.The anticipated follow-up to last year's tower defense success adds a full co-op campaign and plenty of more unlockables into the Spellbook. And if you played the previous game on the PC, purchasing the sequel will net you exclusive in-game content.
Turn the pages of Orcs Must Die! 2's new Spellbook
Orcs Must Die! 2 builds upon the excellent foundation of its predecessor with multiplayer – our first taste was pretty pleasant. As revealed exclusively to Joystiq today, it also adds an expanded Spellbook. The Spellbook itself is now divided into five different subsections: My Gear, Traps, Weapons, Trinkets and Vanity.%Gallery-156358%
Age of Empires developers talk about free-to-try and free-to-play
Gas Powered Games is aiming to take Age of Empires Online out of DLC-supported free-to-play and into a truly free model. That means moving away from what Systems Design Lead Eric Williamson described as "more of a free to try" model and implementing a system through which players can earn points to unlock anything that could be more quickly bought with money. In anticipation of this change, PC Gamer sat down with Williamson and Design Lead Steve Bauman for a chat about some of the philosophy behind the change. Williams said that their hope is that people who were previously turned off by the imperative that they spend money for full in-game advantage will be willing to give it another go. Players will now be able to earn enough points to unlock a premium civilization in "as short as two or three weeks of daily play," so those who spend the most time in-game will reap the greatest reward. Empire points, the purchase resource that will be gained by either money or in-game achievement, will be earned by players as they complete specific campaign quests, level up, and participate in Alliance Contests.
Blatant Hero Academy rip-off on App Store is the laziest yet
It's astoundingly easy to make an app and have it published on the App Store, a fact that has helped the dreams of many developers blossom into reality and is largely regarded as A Good Thing. However, as previous, blatantly plagiarized apps have proven, some people will take A Good Thing and use it to make a quick, dirty buck.The latest scam may be the laziest yet: "Knights Fight" has stolen the screenshots, icon and dignity of Hero Academy, and is selling it for $0.99 on the App Store. Hero Academy itself is an intricate, free title from established indie developer Robot Entertainment, while "Knights Fight" is from Idea House, which exists only as a stark website and is apparently based in suburbia, Wisconsin. At least Idea House got the second half of its name correct.Robot Entertainment told Game Informer it is aware of the fake title and is waiting on a response from Apple, who we assume is too busy counting its money to respond right away, or to thoroughly check the apps it puts in its store.
Making a new friend in Orcs Must Die! 2
When we were picking our Best of the Rest games for 2011, I commented that all I wanted in an Orcs Must Die! sequel was multiplayer. It was at the top of everyone's request list, and Orcs Must Die! 2 delivers.%Gallery-152005%
Robot Entertainment has one unannounced title in development
Robot Entertainment is not a large studio. With only 50 people to toil away on Hero Academy updates and to help get Orcs Must Die! 2 out the door this summer, there's not much manpower to spare.Still, the studio has something else up its sleeve, design director Ian Fischer revealed to Joystiq here at PAX East. Fischer wouldn't give us much beyond the existence of an unannounced title, though he did say it will be "unlike anything we've ever done before."
Orcs Must Die! 2 announced with co-op, playable at PAX East
Robot Entertainment's Orcs Must Die! 2 was announced this morning, with the sequel adding the feature that was painfully absent from the original: cooperative gameplay. The sequel, which will be playable at this weekend's PAX East, welcomes the return of the doofy War Mage and adds the Sorceress, "who keeps enemies at bay with mind-control and magic.""Only 3.4 billion orcs have been slaughtered to date," Robot Entertainment CEO Patrick Hudson declared this morning. "The only way we will get to a respectable orc death toll is by adding another killing machine and cooperative play. Bring a friend and destroy the orcs!"The sequel adds a whole new campaign, more enemies, additional defenses and a new upgrade system. We look forward to hearing the call of orc slaughter and reporting back on our experience this weekend.%Gallery-152005%
Hero Academy update adds Tribe team, optimizes app for iPad
Sick and tired of the lack of variety in your team selection when playing Hero Academy? You've got three teams: the Council, the Dark Elves and the Dwarves. Three is plenty, right? Not for Robot Entertainment -- a new team known as the Tribe is coming soon.On top of the new team, Robot Entertainment is also adding a new battlefield, free to all players, and iPad support that optimizes the universal app with high-res graphics and more screen space specifically designed for iPad. For a breakdown of the new content, march on past the break.
Steam has midweek madness in the beginning of the week, sales abound
Steam's midweek madness sale has Orcs Must Die! and a bunch of L.A. Noire goodies on sale through March 15. Orcs Must Die! is 75 percent off, for $3.75. L.A. Noire, L.A. Noire Complete Edition and the Brady Guide are all half off: Snag the standard title for $15, Complete Edition for $20 and the Brady Guide for $10. The Complete Edition and Brady Guide combo is also 50 percent off, for $25.If that's not enough, today's Daily Deal is Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, on sale for 75 percent off, or $5.
Hero Academy Dwarves update coming Feb 22, for $1.99
Hero Academy has fallen a bit out of my gaming attention lately (truth be told, Triple Town is stealing most of my iOS gaming time these days, probably more than is healthy), but it's still an excellent free-to-play title, and I still have about 15 games going on at any given moment. Currently, the turn-based strategy multiplayer title boasts two different teams, the Humans and the Dark Elves, but later this month the game is getting a third team to play with: The Dwarves. The new race will go in a steampunk direction, with rocket launchers and firearms, and will not only specialize in area-of-effect attacks, but gain nice bonuses from the on-board power-ups. The Dwarves will be available via an in-app purchase of $1.99. A few players have complained about the game's balance, saying that the Dark Elves seemed slightly more powerful than the core Human fighters, and that Robot Entertainment was just trying to sell in-app purchases for a more powerful team. And while I'm sure we'll see that argument again, I'm also sure Robot Entertainment is trying as best they can to balance the teams out. Robot also says that it's working on making sure the title doesn't eat up the iPhone's battery any more than any other games, so we might see some performance updates in this release as well. Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements should also be coming with this release, but there's no mention of a universal build, so iPad users will have to wait on that one. The new update should be out on February 22.
Daily iPhone App: Hero Academy
Honestly, I'm not very good at Hero Academy. It's a deep game, slow to develop (asychronous multiplayer mode dictates the pace) and tough to learn. Still, I've enjoyed it. It's the first iOS title from Robot Entertainment, the company behind the Steam and console hit Orcs Must Die! (In fact, most of Robot's developers came from the old Ensemble Studios camp that made Halo Wars and Age of Empires). The game's both casual and tactical. You are given a certain number of characters or power-ups to play with per turn, and you can use your limited action points to do things like deploy soldiers on the grid-based battlefield, power them up with more attack or defense, move them around, and of course attack the enemy soldiers. Both teams have gems on the battlefield in different places, and the goal is to destroy the enemy's gems while defending your own. The game's depth comes from the various classes. Warriors, mages, archers, priests, and rogues offer several different characters to play with, each with unique abilities and specs. Archers move fast and strike quickly, but go down easily. A priest can hang back and heal others, keeping them in the game. Unfortunately, the game doesn't exactly explain all of this very well, but Robot's working on telling players how it all works, including with a tips video like this. My biggest complaining with Hero Academy is the game's ads. Robot uses a freemium model, which is fine, as you can spend money on in-app purchases for more teams to play with, extra custom colors, or completely optional "taunts" you can send at opponents. Some players have had issue with the in-app purchases, claiming that they're unbalanced, but that's actually not true. Robot's made sure that spending money all goes towards optional customization, not anything that affects gameplay. The ads, however, are a problem for sure. If you don't buy the second team, you're left with very distracting ads in the game menus. Plus, you're forced to watch ads on every turn you play. If, like me, you're playing about 15 or 20 games at a time, that's a lot of really annoying ads to watch. I ended up buying the second team just to get rid of them, which was actually the wrong thing to do. I probably shouldn't have rewarded Robot for annoying me so much. I also wish the title had used Game Center for its login instead of Robot's own clunky system. But despite all of that frustration and the confusion over how the game itself plays, I will say that there is a really nice, well-made game here once you get it. The turn-based battles offer up an excellent mix of deep strategy in very casual and easy-to-control bites, and the game's balanced enough that you can turn the tide of a close battle with some clever moves. Hopefully Robot will work out all of the issues with the game, and balance out those in-app purchases and ads to a point where they support the title instead of overwhelming it. The bonus, of course, is that Hero Academy is a free download, available right now.
Hero Academy available now on iOS, free
Robot Entertainment, developers of the polished tower defense action game Orcs Must Die, launched Hero Academy today for iOS. The strategy game is "free," but if you enjoy the experience at all, you'll find yourself paying the $1 to make the intrusive ads popping up after every turn go away. There are also more heroic teams, avatars, uniforms and taunts to buy at $1+ apiece. The strategy title features asynchronous play, allowing you to keep up with several matches against friends or strangers while on the go. Robot clearly has plans to expand on this property, its first foray into the mobile market, with more teams and a la carte items. %Gallery-139655%
Best of the Rest: Dave's picks of 2011
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP This masterpiece is 98 percent of the reason I bought an iPad. Okay, maybe not quite -- it's more like 99 percent -- but Sword & Sworcery is a puzzle so perfect in its assembly, I haven't fully recovered. I'm sad I won't ever again experience the drive for discovery I felt the first time I was thrust into its picturesque locales. At the same time, I'm grateful I could spin that vinyl so long ago and step into another world.
Orcs Must Die's 'Lost Adventures' DLC coming to XBLA in December
Have you already fulfilled the titular imperative delivered unto the player in Robot Entertainment's XBLA strategy-action title, Orcs Must Die? The joke's on you: There are always more Orcs. This time, they come in the form of the "Lost Adventures" DLC pack -- an expansion which came to PC last month, and will bring its five new fortresses, two enemies and additional collectible skulls to the XBLA version of the game sometime in December. Of course, the 400 Microsoft Points ($5) you drop on this bad boy will also net you a handful of new tools, like the energy-restoring Mana Well, the health-draining Vampiric Gauntlets and the Shock Zapper, which both shocks and zaps. We know, we always assumed those two were synonyms as well. We guess we'll have to see the thing in action before we understand the subtle differences.
Cheap Portal 2, Orcs Must Die! in Steam's 'Autumn Sale'
Starting today and continuing through November 27, Valve will offer daily discounts and deals on many, many titles in honor of the holiday. Such is the plight of the Steam user. Kicking off the sale today are a myriad of games including recent releases Orcs Must Die!, Portal 2 and, uh, Duke Nukem Forever. There are even a few games under $4, and one is actually a bunch of games together: The Oddboxx. Yet another highlight is the Sam & Max Collection, a bundle of the first three seasons ending with the The Devil's Playhouse, for $12.49. Valve will be switching up what's on sale every day, so ... be careful.
Robot: Orcs Must Die! on XBLA will get DLC
We're sure PC players were disheartened to learn that Orcs Must Die! is officially done with downloadable content. Of course, we imagine the news was more of a shock to Xbox users, as the XBLA version of the game has yet to receive any DLC at all. Good news then, as Robot assures Xbox users that DLC is still on the way. Speaking on the Robot forums – a few days prior to revelation that DLC was over, actually – community manager Justin Korthof stated that the company definitely has DLC planned for the XBLA version but isn't "quite ready to announce details yet." He added that players can probably guess the details if they use their "imagination." Presumably, the DLC planned for XBLA will match the two packs already released for PC.
Robot Entertainment reveals iOS game, Hero Academy
Orcs Must Die developer Robot Entertainment recently revealed to us the identity of its next opus: A two-player competitive iOS board game titled Hero Academy. It's a tactics game in which players move heroes across a staging area in an attempt to destroy their competitor's home base crystal before theirs, in turn, gets smashed. If that sounds a little too intense for your usual iOS gaming tastes, don't fret -- the action all takes place asynchronously. Check out the screens below for a first look at the downloadable title, and keep an eye out for the debut trailer in the coming days! %Gallery-139655%
